Below are two videos filmed and edited entirely on the iPhone. YouTube does compromise their quality somewhat, even if you up the quality to HD, which I recommend (click the bottom right of the movie). I’m pretty pleased with the quality, even with YouTube’s heavy compression. At home, the native videos look terrific.

Finally got myself an iPhone. IBM opened up the Corporate tariff to iPhones and from October will even pick up my data charges in addition to Business calls. My personal calls are mere buttons, so it’d have been rude not to get a 32GB iPhone 4.

True, the online hopper system is a horrible introduction that should have been left where it belongs – in FPS games like Halo and MW2. The hoppers have turned everyone into Rank Whores who only drive leaderboard cars, and shunt everyone out of their way. Sure, Custom Public Lobbies as provided in Forza 2 would eliminate the ground hog day that is Hopperland. But it’s not the only way.

Find some like minded individuals and there’s lots of fun to be had in Private Custom Lobbies. I signed up to the 2O4F clan a couple of months ago, a group of folk who are “too old for forza”. We are currently about 200 members strong, and always have good clean racing, mostly in a non league format – even the spec races, and have an age range of 25 to around 50 or 60, so no whiney kids! Great bunch of guys – if you are over 25 and love Forza you should look them up.

I’ve also been enjoying the Forza 3 Tuning Marketplace Community – it’s a great way to extend the longevity of the game. Here, as well as buying and selling tunes and paint through the forums, you can enter community hosted tuning competitions which can be lucrative and are always fun. It’s a great place to find strong tunes that might otherwise disappear amongst the masses on the SF – most of the guys on the TM forum are great tuners and very fast racers. I’ve had a few successful tunes recently, and scored 3rd place in the recent Slo Poke tuning competition which put my RWD Celica #112 on the leaderboards and scored me a couple of million virtual credits. Building a great car, then seeing some of the top drivers do really great things with it is quite satisfying.

Yes, I’m a Geek!

Back before I met my wife, when I had no kids and really didn’t give a rat’s ass about my neighbours, I went through a series of nice valve amps that sounded incredible and made your nipples vibrate. My favourites were the Peavey EVH 5150 and the Mesa Rectoverb. I used to play through those things for hours every day.

Then I moved into a flat, and shortly afterwards my future wife moved in too. That, understandably, resulted in me parting company with my valve amp. The guy who bought that Mesa got a bargain!

This was 2001. Digital amp modelling was taking off in the shape of the Line 6 Pod series. I bought one since they were quite cheap. Compared to the amp modelling that preceded it, the POD was terrific. Compared, to a real amp, the POD was pap. There’s a sterility to these modellers, combined with a slighlty unpleasant fizz, and a stiff feel. This feeling is the hardest thing to quantify, impossible to describe to a non-guitarist, yet the most important thing to a guitarist, even more so than tone. A good guitar amp does more than just amplify your guitar, it’s a instrument in it’s own right, and like all instruments feel is everything. So this failing on the PODs part is significant.

A few years later the POD XT came out promising everything the original failed to deliver. I snapped one up immediately, and was disappointed to find that things hadn’t really progressed much. I’m not entirely convinced the XT improved on the original at all. Mine’s currently gathering dust in a bedroom drawer – it’s a hateful thing.

I’ve tried going down the software only route. This accomplished little other than killing my company laptop. Guitar Rig was just as lifeless and fizzy as the POD, and I spent more time chasing tones with POD Farm than actually enjoying playing. No, software didn’t help either.

It’s got to the point where I don’t plug my guitar in now as it sounds better unplugged than through a modeller. But it’s an electric guitar and I’m a rocker at heart, so “better” is relative. An electric guitar needs to be plugged into an amp, without one the experience is a vastly diminished. I’ve played a Tyler similar to my own through a nice Mesa at GuitarGuitar and the experience was put-a-smile-on-your-face sublime, addictive even. The lack of an amp has led to my guitar being almost permanently hung on the wall, which is sad because I really miss playing it. It’s been my sole passion since I was 16, my wife and kids excepted of course.

I’ve heard really great things about the AxeFX, read some stellar reviews, and listened to some great clips. It’s allegedly a guitar amp and FX processor that not only sounds real, but feels like a real amp too. Of course, it comes with a hefty price tag to match, but so too do the 60 amps it models. This box of tricks is a true instrument with all the sag, feel, and response so sadly missing in every other modeller on the market. It’s only available direct, so cannot be auditioned in person, but Fractal Audio are so confident in their product that you get a 14 day no quibble return period. I’ve been drooling over these for about a year now and really hope to get one sooner rather than later. It looks like a real replacement for the Mesa amp in a quiet, family friendly package. Finally a reason to pull my guitar off the wall – if I ever convince my wife that it’d be money well spent, the last “amp” I’d ever need.

Here’s my list:

Plus:

Rafi – He’s turned into a wonderful, chatty, loveable little guy. A really cute little toddler.

Ali – He’s doing really great at nursery, he’s coping surprisingly well with T1D, and he’s my little buddy.

Zee – My darling wife has had to cope with a lot of turmoil this year, not the least of which has been Ali’s T1D. She still manages to be a great mother and wife.

Parents – Zee’s mum visited again and was a tremendous help, as always, and promises to return in 2010. We’ve seen my parents and sister several times this year.

Tyler – my main (and only) guitar is still the perfect guitar for me. This is a first! I’m usually itching to sell by now. Of course an electric guitar without an amp is like a garage without a Corvette – to paraphrase Jim Tyler. Maybe this year will see me finally get that AxeFX Ultra.

My Xbox 360 didn’t die this year. That’s a first. I bought a new one anyway, why break with tradition?

I was promoted to band 8, got a meager salary increase, and a company car allowance. Goodbye to paid overtime!

Sleepless nights are a thing of the past, except when Ali has a bug / cold which plays havoc with his blood sugar. Rafi loves to sleep for hours and hours.

We had a nice trip to Paris in October, pre T1D, and enjoyed Christmas with my parents last week.

I got a nice, big, fast, quad core iMac i7 27″ for my birthday which I really enjoy.

Minus:

My 4yo son Ali was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Everything else seems trivial in comparison.

Favourite TV:

The Wire – we watched the entire series, every episode of every season in a couple of months.

The Goodwife – a new favourite.

Mad Men – another new favorite.

House – still love it.

Stargate Universe, Smallville, Heroes, and Lost are also personal favs. To be honest, the jury is still out on SGU. Looking forward to 24 again.

Favourite Movies:

Star Trek
Public Enemies
The Hangover
District 9

So many I can’t remember them all. Star Trek by a country mile though. Still to watch 9 and looking fwd to Avatar.

Favourite Music:

This year I haven’t listened to much music. My iTouch has been mostly about surfing, apps, and games. I can’t recall a stand out album. I picked up plenty but never got around to listening.

Favourite Games:

Forza 3 (360)
Infamous (PS3)
Assassins Creed II (360)
Dirt 2 (360)
Uncharted 2 (PS3)
Modern Combat 2 (360)
Borderlands (360)

I bought a lot of good games this year, but for me, Forza 3 is by far the best. I’ve put a lot of hours into that one in the two months it’s been out and expect to play a lot more.

Nativity Play from Zee Hay on Vimeo.

Graham researched thirst and hydration and concluded that most don’t drink enough and that our 4-year-old son was now starting to drink more liquids in line with acceptable levels. Nothing excessive. Phew!

Since Ali was drinking more he was urinating more. Accidents on the way to the toilet were a chore but he always waited till the last minute.  Boys will be boys. He never wet himself at nursery or at night in bed!

A month before 11/11 Ali had a spectacular tantrum while on holiday. We’d been spoiling him with more than the usual amount of sweet treats and Graham’s dad mentioned that sugar could be the culprit. Yes, possibly, best we cut back.

Ali seemed a little leaner but we assured ourselves that he was stretching and growing, his appetite would return to normal as soon as this ‘phase’ passed.

Two nights before a weekend away to visit his grandparents, Ali wets the bed around midnight. After the linen is changed we wake the next morning to find he’d done it again.  Soaked through pyjamas, sheets and on to the mattress. Excessive! He seemed a little distressed about it too. Graham mentioned Diabetes again. After calling for an emergency appointment I was thinking along the lines of an infection during the 2-minute silence on Remembrance Day in the car.

At 1110 I was telling the GP that I’d like to rule out Diabetes and that whatever he has is probably nothing serious. We returned from the toilet with Ali’s urine sample and the boys continued to cause mayhem so when she told me the result I was a blank. I asked her to repeat herself and what does sugar in the urine mean? She explained the test strip, Ali’s urine had ketones matching the very last colour block.

I said the D word a whole different way before bursting into tears. Dr W nodded and I noticed her eyes shining a little too when she said we’d need to go to hospital and that I could call my husband. Ali was shocked that mummy was crying so I quickly pulled it together and held him tightly feeling an enormous amount of guilt along with the shock.

The parenting guilt played on repeat, shouting when he made those accidents and having to clean up after him and the extra laundry and all the times being so irritated that he needed yet more juice or there’d be a tantrum. And why oh why had we not made an appointment earlier even if his thirst was not quite so excessive?

We couldn’t break down, our son needed strength and it was scary enough for him to be going into hospital for the first time in his life. Graham rushed home from work where we ate pizza for lunch and tried our best to appear normal. I avoided looking into Graham’s teary eyes, we got busy packing the bags.

And so we left to hospital where we already knew what they’d say. It took a few hours, a few pricks, a few urine samples and one big blood draw before the Diabetic Specialist came to talk to us and confirm it.

Your son has Diabetes.

Type 1.

For Life!

So many questions and so little did the answers soothe.

Had I made an appointment earlier when Ali first showed signs and was there anything we could’ve done differently. No. He had ketones which would be treated with insulin, there didn’t appear to be any damage.  We had brought him in at the right time. As he has Type 1 Diabetes he would need insulin (injections), every day for the rest of his life.

Looking at Ali in the hospital you’d never say his blood sugar level was 38 mmol/L (target range is 4 to 8 mmol/L), he was playing with his brother in their usual rambunctious way.

We started our education about Type 1 and we are still learning about it every day. Sometimes we still can’t believe it. It didn’t matter that I avoided serious drugs during birth, delayed cutting of the cord, breastfed exclusively for 6 months and then for over a year after that, co-slept and bought all kinds of organic foodstuffs, restricted his sugar and salt intake and well all the rest. There is no formula for a truly healthy child.

If their pancreas stops making insulin there’s nothing you can do about it.

Nothing.

I pleaded for him to be released from hospital on the Friday and to start returning to a new normal, with 2 types of insulin and insulin pens, a blood glucose monitor, urine test strips, several needles, a sharps bin, a file to log results daily and a prescription for the other things we’ll need like a Glucagon kit etc.  

A week passed when I finally broke down, crying until my insides hurt.  Crying for our child who cannot communicate all he is feeling and understands so little but must accept that he cannot eat a certain something and that we need to pierce his skin with sharp needles whether he cooperates or not.
Crying about his outbursts;
‘I don’t want to have Diabetes anymore mummy’, and
‘Can I have my jab tomorrow instead’ and
‘I will give Rafi his injections when he turns 4’ and
‘I don’t want to eat anything, ever’ and
‘Do you and Daddy also have Diabetes? I don’t want to be the only one with Diabetes’ and
worse
‘It’s not fair’.
It’s not fair. But life’s not fair and Diabetes is not a death sentence.
It is a life sentence.

His thighs sometimes go a little blue and purple from the jabs but they fade. He’s quite good with finger pricks for his blood glucose checks, good days he gets 5 pricks, bad days he gets 15. We count his carbs for every meal and snack as his food intake has to closely match his insulin injections. We need to consider not only what he eats, but how much and when.  Hyper’s and Hypo’s still occur often but he’s not had more ketones or a seizure. The tantrums continue and sometimes we see a connection to his blood glucose levels. Sometimes we do good and get better at managing this disease and sometimes we lose our rag.

We’re grateful to the wonderful staff at Yorkhill Hospital and their excellent Diabetic Team who guide us through this stressful process.

We now know this disease is common, especially in Scotland, it can strike at anytime at any age, some babies have it so it’s not unusual that our 4 year old has it.

We now know that several medical teams all around the world are working on various cures and that perhaps in Ali’s lifetime they will find one.

We know he can live a normal life ‘managing’ his Type 1.

And yet…

Our hearts…

His Nibs turns 4! from Zee Hay on Vimeo.